Countless types of equipment use internal combustion engines driven by gasoline or diesel fuel. The fuel is typically held in a reservoir, such as a tank or flexible bladder.
An example of a vessel having a flexible bladder is the Navy's remote mine-hunting system (RMS). The RMS includes an unmanned, semi-submersible vehicle (“RMV”) that tows a variable depth sensor and includes various Sonars to detect, localize, classify, and identify moored and bottom mines. The semi-submersible vehicle is powered by a diesel engine and, as indicated above, includes a flexible/collapsible fuel bladder for storing diesel fuel.
During the fueling process, air that is in the bladder is displaced through the fill port. Experience has shown that it is difficult to fill the bladder using a conventional automobile-type fuel nozzle. Among other difficulties, the automatic shut-off feature of such nozzles will trip prematurely. If a manual nozzle is used, diesel tends to bubble out before the bladder is full (since the fuel near the top of the bladder will be foamy).
As a consequence, an improved system for delivering fuel to a reservoir, particularly a flexible bladder-type reservoir, is needed.